Zebulun
Zebulun was given to 23 boys in 2025, #4,536 among boys’ names; 894 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zebulun by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zebulun mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zebulun is “a male given name from Hebrew.”
Old Testament Hebrew זְבֻלוּן (zebulun), a son of Jacob.
/ˈzɛ.bjəˌlən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zebulun?
#4,536 among boys’ names, 2025
Zebulun rose from #5,284 in 2015 to #4,536 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 9.4 to 13.5 per million.
30 babies in 1979, the peak
Zebulun peaked in 1979, when 30 boys were given it, #1,866 among boys’ names. The 23 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 23 | #4,536 | 13.5 |
| 2024 | 30 | #3,789 | 17.4 |
| 2023 | 14 | #6,505 | 8.2 |
| 2022 | 28 | #3,989 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 16 | #5,769 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 16 | #5,692 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 11 | #7,629 | 6.1 |
| 2018 | 16 | #5,763 | 8.8 |
| 2017 | 7 | #10,754 | 3.8 |
| 2016 | 21 | #4,773 | 11.1 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #5,284 | 9.4 |
| 2014 | 11 | #7,548 | 5.7 |
| 2013 | 18 | #5,165 | 9.5 |
| 2012 | 12 | #7,035 | 6.3 |
| 2011 | 19 | #4,979 | 10.0 |
| 2010 | 14 | #6,350 | 7.3 |
| 2009 | 21 | #4,745 | 10.6 |
| 2008 | 23 | #4,391 | 11.3 |
| 2007 | 14 | #6,257 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 16 | #5,519 | 7.8 |
| 2005 | 13 | #6,215 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 17 | #5,001 | 8.6 |
| 2003 | 7 | #9,564 | 3.5 |
| 2002 | 18 | #4,494 | 9.3 |
| 2001 | 17 | #4,666 | 8.7 |
| 2000 | 22 | #3,755 | 11.2 |
| 1999 | 21 | #3,696 | 10.9 |
| 1998 | 19 | #3,844 | 9.9 |
| 1997 | 22 | #3,345 | 11.7 |
| 1996 | 14 | #4,603 | 7.4 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,920 | 5.3 |
| 1994 | 23 | #3,102 | 11.9 |
| 1993 | 15 | #4,220 | 7.6 |
| 1992 | 15 | #4,104 | 7.5 |
| 1991 | 13 | #4,468 | 6.4 |
| 1990 | 21 | #3,051 | 10.2 |
| 1989 | 13 | #4,264 | 6.5 |
| 1988 | 22 | #2,676 | 11.5 |
| 1987 | 22 | #2,554 | 11.8 |
| 1986 | 18 | #2,887 | 9.8 |
| 1985 | 16 | #3,066 | 8.7 |
| 1984 | 15 | #3,103 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 22 | #2,339 | 12.3 |
| 1982 | 15 | #3,106 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 29 | #1,940 | 16.2 |
| 1980 | 23 | #2,283 | 12.9 |
| 1979 | 30 | #1,866 | 17.4 |
| 1978 | 23 | #2,133 | 14.0 |
| 1977 | 12 | #3,381 | 7.3 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,490 | 3.2 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,456 | 3.8 |
| 1973 | 8 | #4,050 | 5.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zebulun a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zebulun has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zebulun: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zebulun, and how old are they?
An estimated 864 Americans named Zebulun and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 13 and 39. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 631 people named Zebulun (5 women and girls, 626 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 750 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 3,278 babies since 1880, Zebulun is the second most given (27% of them). In 2025 it was given to 23 of their 43 babies (53%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zebulun
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zebulun and names like it
- Compare Zebulun and ZebulonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sZebulun peaked in 1979.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zebulun since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Zebulun: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Zebulun.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Zebulun alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.